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Lex Luthor
|species= Human |nationality= |alias= Lex Luthor |DOB= c. 1984 |DOD= |affiliation= LexCorp Industries |family= Alexander Luthor Sr. (father; deceased) |status= Incarcerated |actor= Jesse Eisenberg |movie= Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice |comic=''Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice – Batman'' Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice – Superman Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice – Lois Lane Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice – Lex Luthor |book= Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice – Cross Fire Time Out Shortlist Gotham & Metropolis (Metropolis; mentioned) }} Alexander Joseph Luthor Jr. (born c. 1984),[http://fortune.com/contentfrom/2015/10/05/lex-luthor-jr/ntv_a/3dsBA58oDAfxgFA/ Lex Luthor Jr.: Not Just His Father’s LexCorp - Fortune] or more simply Lex Luthor, is a megalomaniacal multi-billionaire businessman, as well as one of the smartest individuals in the world. He is the current owner and CEO of LexCorp Industries. Lex feels threatened by the existence of the alien hero Superman, and goes out of his way to expose his godlike archnemesis as a fraud, and to subsequently destroy him. Biography Early Life "Lex" was born to the businessman and founder of LexCorp Industries, Alexander Luthor Sr., an East German emigre, and was subsequently named after his father. Luthor Sr. was a very cruel and despicable man behind closed doors, with his son, Lex, later remarking in outrage that no "man in the sky" would ever come to save him from "father's fists and abominations." In 2000, Luthor Sr. passed away unexpectedly, leaving his legacy of LexCorp Industries to his only son, the wunderkind Lex, who took control of the business, successfully transforming it from a petrochemical and heavy machinery dinosaur into a cutting edge technology giant. In fact, the very considerable business achievements of his father pale in comparison to the astonishingly prolific accomplishments of the younger Luthor, who thus became the youngest person ever to be named Fortune’s Businessperson of the Year and included in Fortune's list of the World’s 50 Greatest Leaders. Among other things, Lex also inherited his father's world-famous collection of meteorite crystals, which, as he would later learn, included Kryptonite minerals. Lex is known to have at one point encountered Amanda Waller and familiarized himself with her organization, A.R.G.U.S., as he subtly refers to both while conversing with Ron Troupe.Lexical Analysis Interview with Ron Troupe Shortly before the release of his company's revolutionary new operating system Lex/OS, Lex Luthor was approached by reporter Ron Troupe, and agreed to meet him at the Royal Penthouse Suite at the Park Metropolis Downtown. Lex was then promptly interviewed on a number of subjects, including the alien hero Superman and the Gotham City vigilante Batman. Right afterwards, Lex offers to play bowling with Troupe, confident in his ability to "destroy" the latter. Aftermath of the Battle of Metropolis After Hanford Technologies was successfully exposed by Daily Planet reporter Lois Lane, Lex arrived at a construction site of the company, and announced that LexCorp Industries was purchasing all of Hanford's holdings (including the site), as well as retaining all of Hanford's employees, as he claimed that the employees should not suffer from the immoral actions of their former CEO. Lex proceeded to admit that despite his failings, Mark Hanford had been a good CEO, whose big mistake was selling illegal Kryptonian technology. Later, in the privacy of his car, with only his assistant Mercy Graves there to hear him, Lex finished - because there were so many more interesting things that could potentially be done with it. Due to Lex Luthor's prolific philanthropic efforts to help financially support the rebuilding of Metropolis (as well as his company, LexCorp Industries), local politicians and media personalities called the companies that left Metropolis traitors, while a growing number of corporations (including Kord Industries), inspired by Lex Luthor, decided to follow his example, with some of them who had previously planned to pull out of Metropolis reversing course, and others, that had never been in Metropolis at all, choosing to expand there. In fact, due to his actions, some even claimed that Lex was as much a hero to Metropolis as Superman himself. Lex, however, dismissed the comparison, claiming that the alien superhero was a figure too mysterious and controversial for him to be a good comparison, but in light of Superman's debut, Lex claimed that recognizing the importance of the "ordinary" citizens of Metropolis (such as rescue workers, first responders, and countless ordinary citizens, who also helped save others in the Battle of Metropolis) had become more important than ever. Collecting Information Lex then proceeded to return to his LexCorp facility, admitting to Mercy Graves that while him not knowing much about Superman is in fact completely true, he has been "working on changing that." With those words, Lex enters a private room with CCTV screens (displaying the corpse of General Zod, the Fortress of Solitude, and a Kryptonian DNA double helix), asking Mercy to make sure he isn't disturbed, as he plans to spend the rest of the day in there. During this time, Lex had a woman named Teri meet with Professor Garcia and another man, who discussed the video footage of Superman saving a runaway train full of passengers. Teri spoke the words spoken to her through an earpiece by Lex (who had her appear to agree with Garcia), while the latter viewed the entire meeting from another CCTV screen. During this time, Lex watched on as Firefly was paid to blow up a merchandise warehouse in Gotham City, in order to test out the capabilities of the infamous Batman. Lex set up another CCTV at the warehouse beforehand, in order to watch events unfold. ''Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice Lex pays embittered cripple Wallace Keefe's bail and invites him to visit his villa. Lex wants him to testify against Superman in the Senate committee. Lex gives Keefe the gift of a motorized wheelchair to sweeten his deal. Lex travels to the US Capitol and is present when Superman arrives to the hearing. Before it begins, Lex asks Mercy Graves to reserve him a seat before speaking to Senator Finch. Shortly after the committee begins with the address of Senator Finch, Lex still hasn't arrived. Then a bomb secretly planted inside Keefe's wheelchair by Lex explodes, killing all present except for the invulnerable Superman. Confronting Superman Lex Luthor has Knyazev's men kidnap Martha Kent, and later personally kidnap Lois Lane and bring her before him, to the top of LexCorp Tower. When joined by her, Lex suddenly pushes her off the tower's side, with Superman promptly arriving, saving her just in time. The alien superhero then flies up to confront Lex, determined to bring him in. However, the malevolent supergenius counters by telling Superman about the latter's mother being held in captivity by Knyazev, and that she would be burned alive in one hour, unless Superman flies to Gotham City, kills Batman in a vicious duel to the death, and brings the vigilante's head to Lex. A furious Superman is left with no choice but to seemingly comply with Luthor's orders, and decided to convince Batman to help him. Unleashing Doomsday Lex then goes to the Fortress of Solitude, awaiting Superman's return. Having mostly recovered from Batman's Kryptonite gas grenades, Superman flies to the Fortress and smashes through the starship's hull to face Lex, letting the latter know that Martha was safe, Batman was now an ally, and that Lex had lost. The malevolent supergenius, however was unfazed by the news of his failed plan, and he is quick to reveal his secret contingency plan - a massive hybrid Kryptonian monster grown from General Zod's corpse and Lex's blood (in an ancient long-forbidden Kryptonian ritual), Superman's "Doomsday". The monster then proceeds to swiftly break out of the ship's birthing matrix and hurls a monstrous punch at Superman, which the latter blocks and counters, and the battling duo proceed to break out of the Fortress, continuing their mortal duel. While Superman is ultimately seemingly killed while taking down the monster, Lois Lane is quick to expose all of Luthor's crimes, and has him swiftly put in prison. Visited by Batman After Superman's "death", the jail cell of the now shaven-headed Lex Luthor is visited by Batman, with the latter expressing his anger at Lex's actions, pinning the malevolent supergenius against a wall and threatening him, but Luthor boldly counters, by stating that "god" is now dead, and that there is something else, something bigger coming, from outer space. Batman punches the wall with his branding-ring, leaving the mark of a bat symbol on the wall. When Luthor turns his head, Batman disappears. He yells at the Dark Knight, that the bells are dinging, mockingly mimicking the dinging sounds. Personality Lex Luthor has an extraordinarily brilliant mind, by far one of the greatest in the world, though it is hideously corrupted by his cruel and traumatic upbringing, horrifically unstable ego, and low morality. While he puts on a kindly, witty and charming façade that he is a man of and for the people, Lex is actually full of rage and ruthless malevolence behind closed doors, truly wishing to obtain ultimate power for himself, to control others, and to destroy those that he deems as his competition, namely his archnemesis Superman, but also metahumans in general. Furthermore, Lex's attempts to take power are quite immoral, as he has little care for the methods he uses, or their impact on others. Lex is even shown to have fits of psychotic frustration and rage when talking to a large group of people and not knowing what to say. Hence, when Lois Lane calls him "psychotic", Lex dismisses that word as merely referring to "any thought too big for little minds." Lex is brilliant in both sciences and business, and is almost always the smartest man in a room, but his God complex persona makes him very envious and bitter towards the godlike Superman, even going so far as openly describing the latter in infernal and diabolical terms, comparing Superman to a Devil that tries to take over humanity by inducing them to admire him. This immense hatred of powerful individuals with popularity seemingly stems from the great amounts of hatred and resentment that Lex harbors for his late father, Alexander Luthor Sr., as the latter, while both powerful and popular, was extremely cruel behind closed doors, physically abusing his son with both fists and "abominations." Thus, Lex's experienced abuse, without any intervention from any "man in the sky", induces him to gain an atheistic view of God, believing that if God were all powerful, then He logically could not be all good and vice versa (as all the evil, malevolence, and misfortune that exists could be stopped by Him), thereby solidifying his belief that power cannot be innocent. Hence, Lex projects his childhood trauma and theological resentment onto the godlike Superman, determined to prove to both himself and to humanity at large that the alien superhero, while being supremely powerful, is not supremely good, and is in fact an abominable fraud. Due to this, Lex, despite his ability to kill Superman himself (with the acquired Kryptonite), instead waits for the opportune moment to manipulate Superman and Batman into a fierce mortal duel, in order to first discredit the Man of Steel, so as to avoid Superman becoming a martyr. Lex carries out this malevolent plan with cold calculation and ruthless cruelty, being quick to murder anyone who comes in his way, such as Senator Finch and Wallace Keefe, and even his own loyal assistant Mercy Graves is likewise shown to be disposable to Lex, as she is likewise killed off along with them. In the meantime, Lex continues to garner as much power as he can get his hands on, being quick to order the Fortress of Solitude to teach him all about the knowledge from 100,000 alien worlds, thereby expanding his already brilliant mind to supergenius level, becoming even more of a god in his own eyes. Despite the failure of his initial grand plan, Lex's equally brilliant contingency plan of unleashing Doomsday succeeds, with Superman seemingly being killed by the bloodthirsty monster. The new extensive knowledge that Lex gains from the Fortress seems to have also made him incredibly bold, as he shows no fear when ambushed in his jail cell and at the mercy of an enraged Batman with a branding ring, with Lex going so far as smugly smiling at Batman's threats, and gleefully warning him about the imminent coming of a new, mysterious alien threat. Abilities *'Genius-Level Intelligence:' Lex Luthor is extremely intelligent, by far one of the most intelligent humans in the world, with his intellect nearly unrivaled, which makes the malevolent genius a worthy opponent even for Superman himself. In addition, after entering the Fortress of Solitude, Lex orders to be taught the knowledge the starship's Kryptonian archive had from 100,000 alien worlds, with apparent success. As such, Lex is now more intelligent than ever, effectively a supergenius, and with his newly obtained tremendous amount of knowledge including that of the imminent threat posed by a mysterious powerful alien individual coming to Earth, which Lex proclaims to Batman with glee. **'Expert Tactician:' Lex Luthor, given his lack of superpowers, he, much like Batman, often uses cunning and planning to successfully outwit stronger and more powerful foes, rather than simply "out-fighting" them, often using any of their exploitable weaknesses (such as Kryptonite, Lois Lane, and Martha Kent in the case of Superman) to his advantage, though his approach is far more ruthless than Batman's. He is frequently successful in doing so, as Lex manages to learn everything about his enemies before engaging them, as is the case with both Batman and SupermanBatman v Superman Extended First look by the CW, which allows him to successfully manipulate Superman into killing Batman by kidnapping the former's mother and girlfriend, and even subtly manipulating the highly intelligent and experienced Batman into obtaining Kryptonite and killing Superman, all without Batman even suspecting it until after his duel with the alien superhero was over. In addition, Lex also appears to have contingency plans prepared in case his plans fail, as seen when he promptly unleashed Doomsday after his initial plan of pitting both heroes against each other in a mortal duel had failed. And he ultimately succeed in his plan of destroying the Man of Steel, with Doomsday seemingly killing Superman in their resulting duel. **'Expert Scientist:' Lex Luthor is an extremely skilled scientist, as he was able to ultimately create the monstrous Doomsday after studying the alien corpse of General Zod and gaining new knowledge from the Fortress of Solitude, and to reverse-engineer a highly advanced Kryptonian Genesis Chamber from the one in the Fortress. *'Expert Businessman:' Lex Luthor is a brilliant wunderkind businessman, managing to successfully transform his father's company, LexCorp Industries, from a petrochemical and heavy machinery dinosaur into a cutting edge technology giant, helping the company grow and get more business partners, as well as earning himself an immense fortune, rivaled only by extreme few, like Bruce Wayne. In fact, the business achievements of his father Alexander Luthor Sr. (which were very considerable in their own right) pale in comparison to the astonishingly prolific accomplishments of the younger Luthor, who became the youngest person ever to be named Fortune’s Businessperson of the Year. As a result, Lex is extremely well-respected in the business world. Unlike Bruce Wayne however, Lex is not above secretly using ruthless cutthroat tactics, unethical practices and illegal operations to maintain the success of his business empire. *'Leadership:' Lex Luthor is an extremely skilled and prodigious leader, becoming the youngest person ever to be included in Fortune's list of the World’s 50 Greatest Leaders. *'Expert Bowler:' Lex Luthor is a highly skilled bowler, confident in his ability to "destroy" Ron Troupe in a gameLexical Analysis. Equipment As the CEO of LexCorp Industries, Lex Luthor has earned himself an immense fortune (considerably expanding upon that which he has inherited from his father), making himself one of the wealthiest people in the world, rivaled only by extreme few, like Bruce Wayne. His inheritance and wealth allows Lex access to some of the most sophisticated technology in the world, as well as some other useful equipment. Hence he easily gets Wallace Keefe to testify against Superman by bribing him with a high-tech wheelchair. *'CCTVs:' Many video cameras that Lex has a penchant for setting up in locations of interest, in order to watch events unfold from within his private room in the LexCorp facility. He has thus successfully spied on Batman, Professor Garcia's footage of Superman, research on the corpse of General Zod, as well as the Fortress of SolitudeEverything That All 5 Chapters of the Prequel Comic Taught Us About the World of Batman v Superman. He is later revealed to have also successfully spied on the Amazon Diana Prince, the Atlantean Arthur Curry, the speedster Barry Allen, and the cyberneticaly enhanced Victor Stone, with Lex dubbing them metahumans. *'Kryptonite:' A glowing green radioactive xenomineral from the planet of Krypton, discovered in the the Indian Ocean, a side effect of the World Engine's attack. As Kryptonite is the greatest weakness of all Kryptonians, Lex effectively wields it against them, with him using it to peel off the fingerprints from General Zod's corpse. It is later stolen and weaponized by Batman, just as Lex had intended. Relationships Family *Alexander Luthor Sr. † - father and mentor Allies *LexCorp Industries **Mercy Graves † - assistant and bodyguard, victim *Doomsday † - creation *A.R.G.U.S. **Amanda Waller *Anatoli Knyazev Enemies *Superman † - Archnemesis and manipulatee, indirect victim, killer (in a possible future) *Batman - business rival and manipulatee *Wonder Woman *Lois Lane - exploited prisoner *Senator June Finch † - political rival and victim *Martha Kent - exploited prisoner; victim (in a possible future) *Wallace Keefe † - manipulatee and victim Gallery Promotional stills Lex Luthor leaning on a table - promotional still.jpg Promotional images Lex Luthor - Fortune promo.png|Headshot from ''Fortune interview Bvs_Cover3_Keyart.jpg Trivia *Lex is the youngest person ever to be both named Fortune’s Businessperson of the Year and included on the magazine’s list of the World’s 50 Greatest Leaders. Behind the Scenes *Seventh live action iteration of the character. *This version of Lex Luthor is inspired by the comics Adventure Comics #271 and real life Sillicon Valley CEOs. *Lex is 31 in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, four years younger than Superman, when in most forms of media, he is either slightly or much older than Superman. *Actor Bryan Cranston had been linked to the role of Lex Luthor, as well as Commissioner Gordon before Eisenberg was cast. Mark Strong, Billy Zane and Joaquin Phoenix were also rumored to being considered for the part. External Links * Lex Luthor at the Superman Wiki. * Lex Luthor at the Superman Anthology Wiki. References Category:Humans Category:Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice characters Category:Main Villains Category:Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice – Batman characters Category:Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice – Superman characters Category:Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice – Lois Lane characters Category:Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice – Lex Luthor characters